Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

The words do not have to be perfect.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

This fight is for everything.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Republicans in disarray!

Not all heroes wear capes.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Friday Morning Open Thread: Defending the Norwegians

Friday Morning Open Thread: Defending the Norwegians

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Not that they need my help — Norwegians are a hardy folk, just ask my mother-in-law, whose family emigrated here from Trondheim when she was young — but the Norwegian sense of humor can be so dry as to entirely elude those of us from more outwardly expressive clans…



.

Sidebar, from my fellow Harp/mick/lanternjaw:

Reader Interactions

188Comments

  2. 2.

    Cermet

    The the thugs in congress will either continue to cover or simply ignore this unbelievable failure of respecting the office of president that beforehand, required some level of decorum – amazing this fart cloud will continue to get even more support from his base.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Yesterday afternoon I was thinking that once upon a time we had Kit Bond for our Governor. We now have Governor Bondage Kit. Life is strange that way.

  5. 5.

    mai naem mobile

    And just imagine, Dolt45 goes to Davos and there will be more international embarrassments there. Well, maybe he can shove his way to the front through a crowd of bankers like he did at the meeting with the world leaders.
    BTW, how come he likes getting workers for his Florida hotels and the VA winery from shit hole countries? I thought he only hired the best people from the best places.

  7. 7.

    NorthLeft12

    @Cermet: The REPUBLICANS in Congress will continue to cover and enable Deadbeat Donald to the bitter end.
    Please don’t get caught making the same lazy complaint about “Congress” like the MSM does without properly identifying the douchecanoes who are allowing/promoting Trump’s reign.

  8. 8.

    planetpundit

    My family emigrated from the Trondheim area (in 1879) to South Dakota….I will omit a compare/contrast dynamic however our cousins when they come over to visit (someone goes one way or the other most every year) they are always polite and complimetary.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @mai naem mobile: Well, he won’t be going to London any time soon: Donald Trump cancels London visit amid protest fears

    Donald Trump has cancelled a visit to Britain next month to open the new US embassy in London, amid fears of mass protests.

    The president claimed on Twitter that the reason for calling off the trip was his displeasure at Barack Obama having sold the current embassy for “peanuts” and built a replacement for $1bn (£750m). “Bad deal,” he wrote. But the embassy’s plan to move from Mayfair to Nine Elms in London was first reported in October 2008, when George W Bush was still president.

    The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said Trump had “got the message” that many Londoners staunchly opposed his policies and actions. “It appears that President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our city’s values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance,” Khan said on Friday. “His visit next month would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests. This just reinforces what a mistake it was for Theresa May to rush and extend an invitation of a state visit in the first place.”
    …….
    Asked about Trump’s cancellation, a Downing Street spokesman repeated the government’s longstanding position that “an invitation has been extended and accepted, but no date has been set”.

    The White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said: “The invitation was made and has been accepted we are still working to finalise a date.”

    I’ll just bet…

  13. 13.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Many, many people are saying I never said shithole. Believe, me. Believe, me.

  14. 14.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Well, folks, it is not like we did not warn you. Well before the 2016 presidential election, Democrats and “Never Trump” Republicans said then-candidate Donald Trump was a racist, xenophobic know-nothing and a liar. He would do great damage to the country, make Republicans into enablers and undermine our democratic institutions. Along came Michael Wolff to show in his book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” that President Trump was not mentally competent to hold the job — and that his most trusted advisers knew it. Trump then proved Wolff’s account stunningly accurate this week.

    JRub

    I starting to develop a crush on JRub

  15. 15.

    m.j.

    Theory: Trump is throwing out rube-bait with this “shithole” comment in part because his vaunted wall has been reduced to 30 miles of Freedom Ditch

    Rube-bait?
    Trump doesn’t think before he says anything. Why should this outburst be a considered a shout-out to the base?

    I really wish people, or pundits, or the press would just stop pretending that this guy knows anything more than what he wants for lunch.

  20. 20.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @OzarkHillbilly: OH! that’s who it was. I saw the headline “gop politician investigated for tying woman in basement”. I thought, “meh, another republican sex scandal”. I thought nothing of it, didn’t even bother to click on the link, thinking it was some rank and file nutjob. But this creep is a governor who had WH ambitions.

    HAAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

  22. 22.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Even the liberal Bill Kristol:

    Bill Kristol @BillKristol

    Two weeks ago a 26-year old soldier raced repeatedly into a burning Bronx apartment building, saving four people before he died in the flames. His name was Pvt. Emmanuel Mensah and he immigrated from Ghana, a country Donald Trump apparently thinks produces very subpar immigrants.

    2,360 replies 61,929 retweets 129,727 likes

  24. 24.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Even the liberal CIA:

    John Brennan @JohnBrennan

    Lady Liberty, our founding fathers, and generations of right-thinking Americans are all weeping tonight over the atrocious comments attributed to Donald Trump, who continues to demonstrate daily that he is a deeply flawed person.

    3:51 PM – 11 Jan 2018

    894 replies 4,976 retweets 10,993 likes

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Democrats and “Never Trump” Republicans said then-candidate Donald Trump was a racist, xenophobic know-nothing and a liar. He would do great damage to the country, make Republicans into enablers and undermine our democratic institutions.

    Lindsey Graham said that too. He got better.

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    Hello from Spain. Am in a shithole or not? I iz confused.

    Head back to Germany tomorrow. And I guess that is not a shithole, because mostly white people (startlingly so)? White and pink people, hardy tall, robust, drive nice cars. So — not a shithole? (We can forget those 2 world wars and the funny guy propped up by propaganda.)

  32. 32.

    Mustang Bobby

    I had fun watching the various news outlets try to get to say “shithole” on the air or in print. Cable folks don’t have to worry about the FCC, but I guess the over-the-air folks went at it delicately… for them. The print people varied from the WaPo which used it in their headline since, in their words, they quote POTUS verbatim. The New York Times, ever the Aunt Pittypat, avoided the headline use but put it in the body of the story. And the New York Daily News didn’t use the exact word, but a picture is worth a thousand asterisks.

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Sen. Rob Schaaf, a St. Joseph Republican who is one of Greitens’ most vocal critics, had this to say on Twitter Wednesday night: “Stick a fork in him.”

    I have a hard time believing that in today’s GOP this whole affair is a deal breaker. I also doubt Kim Gardner’s investigation will amount to much if other’s do not come forward. I don’t believe she is the only one. As far as I can tell the woman at the center of it all is still not speaking. Which in my opinion lends even more credence to what she said to her now ex-husband.

    We’ll see.

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    @Mustang Bobby: I was proud of the WaPost. They went with shithole in their news alert banner. I don’t know whether Katharine Graham would want to be aluve to see this, or not.

  36. 36.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Marco Rubio @marcorubio

    In a skills based economy,we can no longer decide who we allow to immigrate here primarily based on what country they are coming from 1/7

    That’s rich coming from him. He wouldn’t be in the US today under his proposed system.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    @OzarkHillbilly: suspect it will be the “light bondage” that is ickier to the base, and the photo without permission, than the extramarital sex. Evangelicals seem to be just fine with serial marriages and straying, as long as the Lord is invoked and forgiveness is mentioned.

    Greiten’s wife’s statement was yuck, with the “awesome family” and the religious crap. Yuck.

  40. 40.

    Quinerly

    @Baud: I just yelped really loud (and startled a snoozing Poco)….Donny Deutsch just called Trump “evil” at least 5 times on MJ.

  41. 41.

    JPL

    Trump’s behavior cannot be blamed on dementia, or any other mental deficiency. He has always been a racist pig with tiny hands.
    The republicans will continue to support him, because that is who they are.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: I am. Do not want to come back, but am finding some inducements to do so. Each trip, I notice how crass the US looks from afar.

  45. 45.

    Thoughtful David

    So, I wonder how well this is helping the campaign to get foreign tourists to visit the US, after the big drop off in tourism to the US that started a year ago?

  48. 48.

    Anne Laurie

    @planetpundit:

    My family emigrated from the Trondheim area (in 1879) to South Dakota….I will omit a compare/contrast dynamic however our cousins when they come over to visit (someone goes one way or the other most every year) they are always polite and complimetary.

    My in-laws (who also go back & forth on a regular basis) assure me that getting the heck out of Trondheim is never a bad idea. My own people came from the parts of Ireland where, it was said, a farmer couldn’t grow enough grain to brew his own whiskey, so I understand the impetus.

    But, as someone of Irish extraction who grew up in NYC, it took me *years* to get over being somewhat terrified of the Scandinavian sense of humor… I’d do all my best ‘bits’, full vaudeville, and they’d look at me with this bland unmoving half-smile. I finally figured out that if they didn’t agree with me, they’d (eventually) make an excuse to leave the room, but it like to wear us ALL half to death!

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Quinerly: Yep, linked to it at #34. As to trump’s tiny hands, with him, EVERYTHING is a dick measuring contest. He has to have the BIGGEST… the SHINIEST… the MOST DESTRUCTIVE… the MOST BEAUTIFULEST… the MOST NUCLEAR… nuclear arsenal in the world.

  53. 53.

    debbie

    Just listened to an interview with Rep. Gosar (AZ). It was amusing listening to him literally stumbling through responses* to questions about Trump’s shithole statement, but it was a step too far when he insisted that those who called it a racist statement were equally racist. I just hope his chances in the midterms are rapidly dimming.

    * I believe the point Gosar was struggling to make was that what mattered was Trump’s intent, which was not racist.

  55. 55.

    Magda in Black

    Re: the post headline, I grew up a few miles from Norway, Illinois

    I strongly suspect they practiced the evil “chain migration”

    (I’d post the link, but I fupped duck)

  61. 61.

    m.j.

    I’m just wondering if the smartest, most stable-like-genius in the entire history of the world could measure up to a merit-based exam?

  62. 62.

    Quinerly

    @Elizabelle: My dentist (I suspect him to be a Trump supporter…yes, I know, but I love my hygienist (plus she’s struggling with a horrible family problem) had just gotten back from Spain last time I was there. I try to engage with him on his travels when there to keep him off other subjects. His thoughts about Spain were he loved the wine but he thought pretty much everyone in the country was lazy and never accomplished much. I have a terrible gag reflex that was well under control but I feigned that I was going to vomit on him. He shut up and didn’t linger.?

  63. 63.

    SFAW

    I’m trying to look at the potential upside here:

    Now that the MSM is through the “shithole” knothole, then it should soon be acceptable for them to refer to Fuckhead as “Lying Littledick,” “Shitgibbon,” and everyone’s soon-to-be-favorite “That Lying Demented Racist Motherfucker Whose Russian Buddies Stole the Election for Him.” [N.B. Not ignoring voter suppression, just not trying to tax the attention span of the typical consumer.]

    I don’t think that last one flows trippingly off the tongue at this point, but give it time.

  64. 64.

    Thoughtful David

    @Baud:
    Yes, this. Give her a “normal” Republican that doesn’t openly surround himself with anti-Semites, like say, Paul Ryan, and she’ll be fully back on board. You can tell because she continues to write stuff like a few weeks ago that “if the Democrats keep electing hard-leftists like Doug Jones” something something. She only hates Trump, even though her entire career up until a year ago was trying to make him possible. She can never be forgiven until she writes “I was wrong about everything, and Democrats were right about everything. I’m sorry and I won’t do it again. “

  66. 66.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elizabelle:

    suspect it will be the “light bondage” that is ickier to the base, and the photo without permission, than the extramarital sex.

    Are you kidding? The misogynist base dreams of that shit, it is every fantasy they have. Well. if the girl is 14. The only thing they could find fault with is the “light” part. If you’re gonna go, go all the way. Oh, they’d also think he wussed out as he stopped when she requested. A real man would have doubled down.

    Greiten’s wife’s statement was yuck, with the “awesome family” and the religious crap. Yuck.

    Her “leave me and my family out of it” sentiment struck me as particularly self serving. The children? Of course, they are innocents. Her? Tell me, did the Repubs leave Hillary out of it when they were going off about L’Affair Lewinsky?

  67. 67.

    SFAW

    @m.j.:

    I’m just wondering if the smartest, most stable-like-genius in the entire history of the world could measure up to a merit-based exam?

    He probably couldn’t measure up to the exam given in some shithole country, never mind ‘Murica.

    Well, he could ace the one to get into Dumbfuckistan, but that’s about it.

  69. 69.

    Patricia Kayden

    @debbie: Calling the entire African continent and a predominantly Black Caribbean country “sh*tholes” is Racism 101. Love that Republicans are defending Trump’s comment. Can’t wait for November.

  77. 77.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Elizabelle: I’m pretty sure that European/majority White countries aren’t sh*tholes in Trump’s opinion. And today he’s giving a proclamation for Dr. King. What nerve.

  81. 81.

    Amir Khalid

    @Quinerly:
    There are “low” yield nuclear weapons, presumably relative to thermonuclear weapons, but there’s no such thing as a low-geopolitical-impact nuclear weapon. That’s why you can’t order a low-yield nuclear strike and avoid war: war is already on the very moment the President decides to hit the red button. When the experts explained this to Trump, I guess it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

  83. 83.

    danielx

    @eclare:

    Considering his reputation with bankers in general, I confess surprise at his eagerness to rub elbows with a bunch of people who won’t lend him money.

    Because he’s a fucking deadbeat whose business career has mostly consisted of borrowing money and not paying it back.

  85. 85.

    Elizabelle

    @Quinerly: where are these laze-asses in Spain? I am not seeing them. I am mostly noticing that local governments pay workers (with benefits!) to clean the towns, cities and roads. Am noticing how much cleaner and more pride in their communities. The major highway towards Madrid was neat as could be, with yellow bags of trash neatly collected and ready for pickup. Collected by laze-asses, I guess. And not many billboards. Not the constant stealing your attention that goes on in our capitalism on steroids experience.

    I think the US has been on a real downward spiral, with predatory capitalism and fake food and fake ideas, for a few decades now, and it takes leaving the country for a spell to see that. (Not for everybody. BJ peeps are woke. But I’d love to see what my rebel yell brother in law would make of this.)

  86. 86.

    p.a.

    Remember when there was a thought that once they got their tax cuts* they’d turn on shitholegibbon? Good times…

    *highly selective tax cuts, that is.

  88. 88.

    Jeffro

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    I starting to develop a crush on JRub

    Careful, Corner Stone doesn’t dig that nickname ;)

    It’s Jennifer Rubin. LOL

    I’d have a crush on her if she could just do the obvious thing: join the Dems, at least until the Great National Embarrassment is out of office.

  89. 89.

    SFAW

    @Elizabelle:
    Do you live there now? I was under the impression you were just there on an extended vacation. But, I have to confess, I don’t follow the Juicer travel/relo news closely (except for Vice-President-to-Be Poco, of course).

  90. 90.

    Elizabelle

    @p.a.: I think that’s actually what’s happening now. The morons in Trump’s base will be the last to support him.

    Lovely catching up w B Juice. Got some walking and art-viewing to do before sun sets, in five short hours. Ciao.

  91. 91.

    Jeffro

    @Amir Khalid:

    war is already on the very moment the President decides to hit the red button. When the experts explained this to Trump, I guess it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

    Great point and likely 110% accurate. He wants very badly to ‘spank’ NK for daring to talk back to him. The problem is of course that one cruise missile strike, even a non-nuclear one, and there’s a better than average chance they loose their whole arsenal.

    It’s enough to give this NoVA boy nightmares…

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    @SFAW: just go for a month or two when I can. Totes planning to do a student visa (and actually study!) as soon as I can. Just not at home in America any more, and 2016 broke my heart.

  95. 95.

    eclare

    @Elizabelle: I went to Croatia a few years ago: no litter, actual street sweepers, incredible highway that passed tons of windfarms, beautiful parks, promenades for strolling…and in two weeks, I only saw one McDonald’s.

  102. 102.

    danielx

    First thing I heard this morning: ice. Ice and sleet rattling on the windows, appears to be about a quarter to half inch of ice on driveway and trees.

    Ain’t going nowhere today and probably not tomorrow either.

  103. 103.

    eclare

    @danielx: I just see that crowd as recognizing POS for what he is, a trashy, ignorant, racist conman, the same way the Manhattan social set sees him.

  105. 105.

    danielx

    @Elizabelle:

    I confess to some surprise to seeing “shithole” on the WaPo front page and I know I should not have been, considering the source.

  106. 106.

    NorthLeft12

    @David Merry Christmas Koch:
    Donald T

    rump, who continues to demonstrate daily that he is a deeply flawed person.

    John Brennan

    This should be in the running for understatement of the century.
    Most people would not have batted an eye if he had used any combination of idiot, ignorant, bigoted, cruel, and piece of shit to describe the character of Deadbeat Donald.

  107. 107.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Amir Khalid: There are tactical, that is battlefield nuclear weapons that are intended for use during an existing war, with yields as low as 10kT or as high as 250kT (many weapons had a dial on the side that would set the maximum yield for operational flexibility). Cold War Europe had thousands of such weapons on standby, ready for use at a few minutes notice, on both sides. The bad news is that most of the suitable targets for such area-effect weapons like army bases, shipping ports, railway yards, bridges, motorway junctions etc. were close to or within “civilian” targets like towns, cities, schools, hospitals etc.

    The people who played war games for a living had a habit of reaching for these toys within a few days of either side crossing the Inner German Border and heading for The Atlantic Ports/Moscow. A couple of days after that, when a number of European cities were smoking rubble from nuclear strikes the belligerents opened up the strategic weapons toybox and a full and frank silo-emptying exchange of warheads occurred targetting assorted points in the Rodina and CONUS.

    The only way to win is not to play, as they say.

    The number of tacnukes in Europe has gone way down. Britain has no tacnuke capability left, only a single strategic second-strike SSBN on patrol at any given time. I’m not sure about the French but I believe they still have an aircraft-launched nuclear bomb capability based on a strike aircraft which is probably tactical in nature given the limited range of such.

  108. 108.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018

    He should have stopped after “administration.” It would have been just as true and just as logical.

  109. 109.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ST. LOUIS • The hulking tanks behind the bar at Urban Chestnut Brewing Company’s Manchester Avenue facility help produce more than just 20,000 barrels of beer annually. The process generates close to 1 million pounds of spent grain — material left over after carbohydrates have been extracted for fermentation.

    Disposing of all that — along with other byproducts of the brewing process — is a major logistical problem and business decision for the company. But that challenge has bred opportunities that Urban Chestnut has used to save money and distinguish itself as a waste-reduction leader on a national stage.

    Rather than pay for much of its waste to be hauled off to a landfill, Urban Chestnut, like many other brewers, has formed arrangements to give the products to farms and other area businesses — a symbiotic relationship that trims costs for both parties.

    The company’s measures to cut down on waste have amounted to more than just savings and sparing tons of carbon-rich material from decomposing in landfills. Last week, Urban Chestnut was named one of 16 nationwide recipients of the Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise Award, winning the Small Business category.

    The award recognized the St. Louis-based brewing company’s waste “prevention and diversion accomplishments,” according to the announcement from the EPA.

    Kinda surprised the Pruitt EPA allows such an Obamafied program to exist. Still kinda cool.

  111. 111.

    Quinerly

    @OzarkHillbilly: Urban Chestnut folks are great people. Beautiful facility.? Ozark, next time you are in town, check out the new Earth Bound brewery spot on Cherokee. They moved to a larger building on Cherokee… now across from the Cinderella Building. Beautiful rehab job that I think you will appreciate. Interesting beers…ask for tastes, though. Their IPAs are very, very different. Gotta love those hops!

  112. 112.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eclare: McDonalds on the other side of the pond. Heh. My wife took her daughter’s in laws to Majorca for a 2 week stay before she sold her parents condo. They missed “American food”. Ate at McD’s a # of times. There in the land of fresh seafood they wanted a 1/4 pounder and fries. Made me glad I missed that trip.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    What nasty, mean spirited things will the President and his low quality team say today, I wonder?

    Remember- the only reason we know about this is he said it in front of people who tell the truth about him. There happened to be a person who isn’t a coward in the room. That rarely happens.

    Go back thru the Tweets and statements from Team Trump- they’re either smearing someone else or bragging about themselves. Name one person Trump has hired who isn’t an outright asshole- you can’t do it. The worst people in the country have somehow ended up in power. Something is terribly broken in this supposed “meritocracy” and we better fix it, because it’s getting worse.

  120. 120.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Amir Khalid: I agree. There is a running discussion of this point in my Twitter feed, but this is where I come down, that if a nuke is used, that totally changes things. Also, there is no way they are going to ramp up production during Trump’s three remaining years.

    That’s my post about the nuclear posture review. Oh, did I say I haven’t read it yet? I will and will do a post, but I think it won’t be much different. Or maybe Adam will do one first. I’m busy today but will try to get to it over the weekend.

  122. 122.

    danielx

    @eclare:

    May have to call in for the daughter unit today, supposed to take her to work at 11. But I don’t think even the Subaru will handle the roads today.

  123. 123.

    James E Powell

    @Thoughtful David:

    I’ve replied to her tweets – and Kristol’s – pointing out their roles in producing this disaster & asking them to admit it. No replies, of course, but I feel it needs to be done.

  124. 124.

    danielx

    @Kay:

    Off the top of my head, the only one of his appointees who isn’t a reprehensible person is Mattis, who also appears to be the only one whose primary interest isn’t enriching himself or others.

    Aside from him, you’re pretty much on the money. I’ve lived through more presidencies than I care to think about, and I have never seen such a collection of mean-spirited, grasping, no-class assholes.

  125. 125.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Robert Sneddon: There are American nukes stationed in Turkey, Italy, and I think the Netherlands. (I would have to check to be sure.) They are called tac nukes, but they are big air-delivered bombs, not the “suitcase bombs” that some think of as tac nukes. Given Turkey’s recent propensities, it seems a bad idea to keep nukes there, but such decisions take a lot of time.

    Russia has more tac nukes around its territory, so they like to demand that tac nukes be removed from non-American territory. They probably don’t have “suitcase bombs” either.

  126. 126.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eclare: Same here, interspersed with some Spanish ham and cheese and lamb and cheese and all the other delicacies unique to that country. And did I mention the cheese? I really like the cheese.

  129. 129.

    Kay

    @danielx:

    I don’t get it, I really don’t. These people had every advantage in life. They were given everything, from birth.

    Every fucking day they’re shitting all over someone else. No gratitude, no generosity, instead it’s all sour nastiness and rage. Where does this come? How much more do they want? How much do they think they deserve? Everything? They can’t sleep at night knowing some African immigrant in Minneapolis is taking a seat in a graduate program? That’s some kind of affront, something THEY own that was taken from them. Take, take, take. Nothing good comes back. They’re a black hole of want and need and demands.

  130. 130.

    planetpundit

    @Anne Laurie: My family is from Rognes (small locale outside Trondheim) everyone did well as a result of some leaving and some staying. I do envy them the huge oil fund they have banked. I find Minneapolis a sublime paradise and was raised on the rather dry humor.

  132. 132.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Quinerly: No, it will show that he is lithe and svelte and the healthiest person to ever hold the office of the presidency. And he’s “like a really smart” person too.

  134. 134.

    Kay

    @planetpundit:

    What is amazing about the oil fund is they returned that wealth to the citizens, if “sovereign fund” means what I think it means. Wow. Kudos for keeping greedy hands at bay. That’s really an accomplishment. If it happened here we’d have an entire political party and campaign industrial complex dedicated to plundering it and grabbing it all for themselves. We’d spend the next 100 years fighting them off.

  136. 136.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    They were given everything, from birth.

    Well actually, they weren’t given everything, so now they’re trying to get what wasn’t. Because they are just so…. deserving.

  137. 137.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    So much of Trump’s language is whining. “They get better immigrants than we do. They get better deals than we do” – wah, wah, wah.

    He was raised poorly. There’s no escaping that conclusion. They did a bad job. Everyone. From his family to that fancy boarding school to the colleges he’s always bragging about. Someone should have (rhetorically) knocked him on his ass at some point and no one did. Maybe they didn’t like him that much so didn’t care enough to do it. That happens too.

    No one told him he had great unearned privileges so should be grateful. I don’t really blame them. I’d avoid interactions with him too because shitting on people and bragging about yourself is ultimately boring, but it was someone’s duty. A paid Trump Family staff member might have taken it on.

  140. 140.

    George

    The problem with some people on the left is that they are unable to frame the stuff Trump does for maximum damage to our opponents.

    Anyone who burps up a comment now that says, in effect, “I guess America is a shithole country” is foolish. It smacks a bit of defeatism.

    Here is what we should be saying: “The GOP and its president apparently are trying to make America a shithole country.” Or some variation thereof. We need to grind that notion into the greater consciousness of our country. That’s what conservatives have been doing to us for decades.

    First, that puts the onus on the GOP to defend itself. Second, it allows liberals to demonstrate that we are more pro-American than the GOP is because, really, we are.

  141. 141.

    satby

    @danielx: already icy and snowing here, winter storm advisory says it can end with up to eight inches of snow. During yesterday’s 55° weather the last of the previous snow melted at least. I’m not going anywhere either, except maybe moving my car back to the street if it gets more than 4 inches high.

  142. 142.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    You see how fragile he is by how he carefully avoids protests. He’s afraid to go to London.

    It’s kind of great if you’re opposed to him because it’s such a glaring (and childish) weakness. It hurts his feelings when people publicly oppose him. A single protester can pop that giant balloon of an ego. Wow. That’s a lot of power he’s given them.

  143. 143.

    Chyron HR

    @George:

    “When I saw Trump literally rape an actual baby on live television, it threw into sharp relief how much the Democrats suck.”

  145. 145.

    bemused

    @Anne Laurie:

    The Scandinavians may appear to be unamused but they could be roaring with laughter on the inside. Hard to say because they don’t like to “stand out” with emotions. This is still true in my neck of the woods heavily populated with Scandinavian immigrant descendants. That reserve has been diluted over generations in America but it’s still pretty common.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    @Chyron HR:

    :)

    “Liberals would appeal more to conservatives if they would stop being liberals and be conservatives”

    One of the great things about Trump is I realize it really doesn’t matter to me if a total of five people oppose him- I’d still have to be in that five. Supporting him is off the table so there’s a lot of clarity.

  150. 150.

    MomSense

    @Cermet:

    Why give cover to the Republicans by saying simply thugs in Congress? It is the Republicans in Congress who are individually and collectively responsible for our disgraceful president.

  151. 151.

    1000 flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @eclare: They’ve closed the state offices here in Nashville, which suggests we’re facing something like last week’s Atlantic coast storm but maybe Haslam just wants to aggravate the legislature.

  154. 154.

    Peale

    @George: no. According to our progressive betters, not acknowledging that the country turned to shit under Obama is why we look out of touch. Apparently, no one votes for optimism.

  158. 158.

    bemused

    @Quinerly:

    Which would elevate his blood pressure more before the physical, allowing him to tweet and watch cable news or stopping him.

  159. 159.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    My mother was good at this. Harsh, but someone had to do it. She used to do this horrible thing where she would call us “Lady Jane” if she thought we were ungenerous or whiny or ungrateful I have no idea where this came from but you’d get it immediately- this is not a good thing to be called. OMG, she’s calling me Lady! So mean!

    You wonder what Old Country tradition that came out of, where “Lady”is used as an insult. Hmmm. Some ancient bitter prole v royalty thing going on THERE, I think :)

    The bragging thing interests me with Trump because bragging is universally considered bad manners. That crosses class lines. It’s like he was raised in a basement. Nothing reached him. No “norms”.

  164. 164.

    David Evans

    @Kay: More like working class vs the aristocracy – the ones who had servants and acted as if they were better than everybody else. The proles were often quite attached to the monarchy, whom they thought of as being above class conflict.

  165. 165.

    JGabriel

    Rick Wilson (via Anne Laurie @ Top):

    Theory: Trump is throwing out rube-bait with this “shithole” comment in part because his vaunted wall has been reduced to 30 miles of Freedom Ditch.

    Theory: Trump is throwing “shithole” rube-bait because he’s a racist, ignorant, demented, filter-less jackass who doesn’t know any fucking better.

  167. 167.

    Jack the Second

    @Kay: Eh, it’s hard to say.

    This comes up a lot during performance review / promotion season at work, a multinational company, where you have some employees from “bragging cultures” and some from “self-deprecating cultures”. Ignoring the international component and sticking to domestic stereotypes, you’ll have Americans raised on the coast happily saying “I single-handedly pulled off project X”, when they played an important role on the team but it was definitely a team effort, and Midwesterners saying things like “I assisted with project Y” when they were undoubtedly the single most critical person on the project.

    Both groups don’t self-report their contributions accurately, but both are reporting it in the way they would to be understood within their culture. And on a company-level, it takes a lot of work to neither neglect the contributions of the people from self-deprecating cultures nor start assuming the people from bragging cultures are all assholes.

  168. 168.

    KickBoxBanana

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
    I starting to develop a crush on JRub

    Completely ignoring all the horrible things she said about Obama? You people amazing me how short sighted you can be sometimes. These deplorable grifters are human weathervanes.

  170. 170.

    Tenar Arha

    So, I called my Governor in addition to my second set of calls to Congress today.

    But I’m wondering if I should call the White House or not to express my displeasure at the President’s comments. Also, anyone got a good script for that phone call if I decide to put myself through it?

  171. 171.

    Tenar Arha

    So, I called my Governor today in addition to my second set of calls to Congress this week.

    But I’m wondering if I should call the White House or not to express my displeasure at the President’s comments. Also, anyone got a good script for that phone call if I decide to put myself through it?

    ETA timeline

  172. 172.

    JGabriel

    @satby:

    They wanted rube bait, and then wanted to play victim when the blowback became too much.

    Sadly, that doesn’t actually differentiate Trump’s malministration from the rest of the GOP.

  176. 176.

    Quinerly

    @KickBoxBanana: I like to be somewhat hopeful. I’m so old that I remember the guy he attacked the Clintons and, I think, Anita Hill. Right now I can’t remember his name but he might be an “Eric.” Did a complete turnaround, recanted, and I think founded Media Matters. Big Clinton supporter now. Probably should have looked up more details before posting. I do think the JRubes love is said mostly in jest….I know I’m always teasing when I say I’m crushing on Axis of Evil Frum.?

  179. 179.

    Kraux Pas

    One of my best friend’s family immigrated here from Haiti. His mom is a nurse. Obviously of less value to society than any Norwegian with a non-descript skillset /Trumpet

  182. 182.

    Kraux Pas

    @schrodingers_cat: Also, working in pharmacy, I see a lot of pharmacists from Africa, majority black island nations, and Asian nations that probably aren’t among Trump’s desired emigrees either.

  185. 185.

    Kay

    @Jack the Second:

    I see what you’re saying. I loved “humble brag” because it was one of those “there’s a PHRASE for that?”
    I felt the same way about “mansplaining”. THAT’S what that is! I need these words :)

    My son has a co-worker and his nickname is “money” so I was saying “he got such a cool nickname, he must love that” and they corrected me- his nickname is “money” because he brags incessantly about how much he has and they think he’s dumb and broke.

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